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Huītzilōpōchtli
Huītzilōpōchtli
The Spaniards recorded the deity's name as Huichilobos. During Ruler of the South[1]
their discovery and conquest of the Aztec Empire, they wrote that Member of the Tezcatlipocas
human sacrifice was common in worship ceremonies. These took
place frequently throughout the region. When performed, typically
multiple victims were sacrificed per day at any one of the
numerous temples.[4]
Etymology
There continues to be disagreement about the full significance of
Huītzilōpōchtli's name.[5] Generally it is agreed that there are two
elements, huītzilin "hummingbird" and ōpōchtli "left hand side."
The name is often translated as "Left-Handed Hummingbird" or
"Hummingbird of the South" on the basis that Aztec cosmology
associated the south with the left hand side of the body.[6][7]
Huitzilopochtli is seen as the sun in mythology, while his many male siblings are perceived as the stars and
his sister as the moon. In the Aztec worldview, this is the reason why the Sun is constantly chasing the
Moon and stars. It is also why it was so important to provide tribute for Huitzilopochtli as sustenance for the
Sun.[13] If Huitzilopochtli did not have enough strength to battle his siblings, they would destroy their
mother and thus the world.
History
Huitzilopochtli was the patron god of the Mexica tribe. Originally,
he was of little importance to the Nahuas, but after the rise of the
Aztecs, Tlacaelel reformed their religion and put Huitzilopochtli at
the same level as Quetzalcoatl, Tlaloc, and Tezcatlipoca, making
him a solar god. Through this, Huitzilopochtli replaced
Nanahuatzin, the solar god from the Nahua legend. Huitzilopochtli
was said to be in a constant struggle with the darkness and required
nourishment in the form of sacrifices to ensure the sun would
survive the cycle of 52 years, which was the basis of many Huitzilopochtli, as depicted in the
Mesoamerican myths. Codex Tovar
There were 18 especially holy festive days, and only one of them
was dedicated to Huitzilopochtli. This celebration day, known as Toxcatl,[15] falls within the fifteenth
month of the Mexican calendar. During the festival, captives and slaves were brought forth and slain
ceremoniously.[16]
Every 52 years, the Nahuas feared the world would end as the other four creations of their legends had.
Under Tlacaelel, Aztecs believed that they could give strength to Huitzilopochtli with human blood and
thereby postpone the end of the world, at least for another 52 years.
In the book El Calendario Mexica y la Cronografia by Rafael Tena and published by the National Institute
of Anthropology and History of Mexico, the author gives the last day of the Nahuatl month Panquetzaliztli
as the date of the celebration of the rebirth of the Lord Huitzilopochtli on top of Coatepec (Snake Hill);
December 9 in the Julian calendar or December 19 in the Gregorian calendar with the variant of December
18 in leap years.
Sacrifice
Ritual Sacrifice and self bloodletting were key offerings. The
Aztecs performed ritual self-sacrifice (also called autosacrifice or
blood-letting) on a daily basis.[17] The Aztecs believed that
Huitzilopochtli needed daily nourishment (tlaxcaltiliztli) in the form
of human blood and hearts and that they, as “people of the sun,”
were required to provide Huitzilopochtli with his sustenance.[18]
During the festival of Panquetzaliztli, of which Huitzilopochtli was the patron, sacrificial victims were
adorned in the manner of Huitzilopochtli's costume and blue body paint, before their hearts would be
sacrificially removed. Representations of Huitzilopochtli called teixiptla were also worshipped, the most
significant being the one at the Templo Mayor which was made of dough mixed with sacrificial blood.[23]
Warriors who died in battle or as sacrifices to Huitzilopochtli were called quauhteca (“the eagle’s
people”).[18] War was an important source of both human and material tribute. Human tribute was used for
sacrificial purposes because human blood was believed to be extremely important, and thus powerful.
According to Aztec mythology, Huitzilopochtli needed blood as sustenance in order to continue to keep his
sister and many brothers at bay as he chased them through the sky.[24]
Human sacrifice as shown in the
Codex Magliabechiano
Prisoners for sacrifice were decorated.
Codex Tudela.
Mythology
Many gods in the pantheon of deities of the Aztecs were inclined to have a fondness for a particular aspect
of warfare. However, Huitzilopochtli was known as the primary god of war in ancient Mexico.[30] Since he
was the patron god of the Mexica, he was credited with both the victories and defeats that the Mexica
people had on the battlefield. The people had to make sacrifices to him to protect the Aztec from infinite
night.[31]
According to Miguel León-Portilla, in this new vision from Tlacaelel, the warriors that died in battle and
women who died in childbirth would go to serve Huitzilopochtli in his palace (in the south, or left).[32]
From a description in the Florentine Codex, Huitzilopochtli was so bright that the warrior souls had to use
their shields to protect their eyes. They could only see the god through the arrow holes in their shields, so it
was the bravest warrior who could see him best. Warriors and women who died during childbirth were
transformed into hummingbirds upon death and went to join Huitzilopochtli.[33]
As the precise studies of Johanna Broda have shown, the creation myth consisted of “several layers of
symbolism, ranging from a purely historical explanation to one in terms of cosmovision and possible
astronomical content.”[34] At one level, Huitzilopochtli's birth and victorious battle against the four hundred
children represent the character of the solar region of the Aztecs in that the daily sunrise was viewed as a
celestial battle against the moon (Coyolxauhqui) and the stars (Centzon Huitznahua).[29] Another version of
the myth, found in the historical chronicles of Diego Duran and Alvarado Tezozomoc, tells the story with
strong historical allusion and portrays two Aztec factions in ferocious battle. The leader of one group,
Huitzilopochtli, defeats the warriors of a woman leader, Coyolxauh, and tears open their breasts and eats
their hearts.[35] Both versions tell of the origin of human sacrifice at the sacred place, Coatepec, during the
rise of the Aztec nation and at the foundation of Tenochtitlan.[25]
Origins of Tenochtitlan
There are several legends and myths of Huitzilopochtli. According to the Aubin Codex, the Aztecs
originally came from a place called Aztlán. They lived under the ruling of a powerful elite called the
"Azteca Chicomoztoca". Huitzilopochtli ordered them to abandon Aztlán and find a new home. He also
ordered them never to call themselves Aztec; instead they should be called "Mexica."[36] Huitzilopochtli
guided them through the journey. For a time, Huitzilopochtli left them in the charge of his sister,
Malinalxochitl, who, according to legend, founded Malinalco, but the Aztecs resented her ruling and called
back Huitzilopochtli. He put his sister to sleep and ordered the Aztecs to leave the place. When she woke
up and realized she was alone, she became angry and desired revenge. She gave birth to a son called Copil.
When he grew up, he confronted Huitzilopochtli, who had to kill him. Huitzilopochtli then took his heart
out and threw it in the middle of Lake Texcoco. Many years later, Huitzilopochtli ordered the Aztecs to
search for Copil's heart and build their city over it. The sign would be an eagle perched on a cactus, eating a
precious serpent, and the place would become their permanent
home.[37] After much traveling, they arrived at the area which
would eventually be Tenochtitlan on an island in the Lago Texcoco
of the Valley of Mexico.
Iconography
In art and iconography,
Huitzilopochtli could be
represented either as a
hummingbird or as an
anthropomorphic figure with
just the feathers of such on his
head and left leg, a black face,
and holding a scepter shaped
like a snake and a mirror. The founding of the Aztec capital
According to the Florentine Tenochtitlan; An eagle representing
Codex, Huitzilopochtli's body Huitzilopochtli, which exhales the atl-
was painted blue. [38] In the tlachinolli (war symbol), is perched
Huitzilopochtli in the Codex great temple his statue was on a nopal cactus. Teocalli of the
Borbonicus. Sacred War, sculpted in 1325.
decorated with cloth, feathers,
gold, and jewels, and
was hidden behind a
curtain to give it more reverence and veneration. Another
variation lists him having a face that was marked with yellow
and blue stripes and he carries around the fire serpent
Xiuhcoatl with him.[39] According to legend, the statue was
supposed to be destroyed by the soldier Gil González de
Benavides, but it was rescued by a man called Tlatolatl. The
statue appeared some years later during an investigation by
Huitzilopochtli in the Codex Borgia.
Bishop Zummáraga in the 1530s, only to be lost again. There
is speculation that the statue still exists in a cave somewhere in
the Anahuac Valley.
He always had a blue-green hummingbird helmet in any of the depictions found. In fact, his hummingbird
helmet was the one item that consistently defined him as Huitzilopochtli, the sun god, in artistic
renderings.[40] He is usually depicted as holding a shield adorned with balls of eagle feathers, a homage to
his mother and the story of his birth.[38] He also holds the blue snake, Xiuhcoatl, in his hand in the form of
an atlatl.[41]
Calendar
Diego Durán described the festivities for Huitzilopochtli. Panquetzaliztli (November 9 to November 28)
was the Aztec month dedicated to Huitzilopochtli. People decorated their homes and trees with paper flags;
there were ritual races, processions, dances, songs, prayers, and finally human sacrifices. This was one of
the more important Aztec festivals, and the people prepared for the whole month. They fasted or ate very
little; a statue of the god was made with amaranth (huautli) seeds and honey, and at the end of the month, it
was cut into small pieces so everybody could eat a little piece of the
god. After the Spanish conquest, cultivation of amaranth was
outlawed, while some of the festivities were subsumed into the
Christmas celebration.
See also
History of Mexico City
Human sacrifice in Aztec culture
List of solar deities
Citations
1. Cecilio A. Robelo (1905). Diccionario de Mitología Nahoa (in Spanish). Editorial Porrúa.
pp. 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202. ISBN 970-07-3149-9.
2. Guilhem Olivier (2015). Cacería, Sacrificio y Poder en Mesoamérica: Tras las Huellas de
Mixcóatl, 'Serpiente de Nube' (in Spanish). Fondo de Cultura Económica. ISBN 978-607-16-
3216-6.
3. "The Teteo" (https://teochan.org/the-teteo.html). Teochan. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
4. Bernal Diaz del Castillo (2012). The True History of The Conquest of New Spain (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=kMhgDwAAQBAJ). Hackett Publishing Company, Incorporated.
ISBN 978-1-60384-817-6.
5. Karttunen, Frances (1992). An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (https://archive.org/details/an
alyticaldictio00kart). University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 91 (https://archive.org/details/analytic
aldictio00kart/page/n62). ISBN 978-0-8061-2421-6.
6. aunque el término ha sido traducido habitualmente como 'colibrí zurdo' o 'colibrí del sur',
existe desacuerdo entorno al significado ya que el ōpōchtli 'parte izquierda' es el modificado
y no el modificador por estar a la derecha, por lo que la traducción literal sería 'parte
izquierda de colibrí', ver por ejemplo, F. Karttunen (1983), p. 91
7. "Huitzilopochtli" (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Huitzilopochtli). Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Retrieved 14 May 2018.
8. Diego Durán (1971). Book of Gods and Rites. Translated by Fernando Horcasitas and Doris
Heyden. University of Oklahoma Press. LCCN 73-88147 (https://lccn.loc.gov/73-88147). "For
six months of the year [the huitzitzilin] is dead, and for six it is alive. And, as I have said,
when it feels that winter is coming, it goes to a perennial, leafy tree and with its natural
instinct seeks out a crack. It stands upon a twig next to that crack, pushes its beak into it as
far as possible, and stays there for six months of the year—the entire duration of the winter—
nourishing itself with the essence of the tree. It appears to be dead, but at the advent of
spring, when the tree acquires new life and gives forth new leaves, the little bird, with the aid
of the tree's life, is reborn. It goes from there to breed, and consequently the Indians say that
it dies and is reborn."
9. Read, Kay Almere (2000). Mesoamerican Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals,
and Beliefs of Mexico and Central America (https://books.google.com/books?id=Y053PeFm
S5UC). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-19-514909-8.
10. Coe, Michael D. (2008). Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs. London: Thames & Hudson.
p. 216.
11. Durán, Fray Diego (October 1994) [1581]. The History of the Indies of New Spain (https://boo
ks.google.com/books?id=193tKPdM-ykC&pg=PA584). Translated by Heyden, Doris.
University of Oklahoma Press. p. 584. ISBN 978-0-8061-2649-4.
12. Jordan, David K. (January 23, 2016). "Readings in Classical Nahuatl: The Murders of
Coatlicue and Coyolxauhqui" (http://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/nahuatl/ReadingCoatlicue.ht
ml). UCSD. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
13. Coe, Michael D. (2008). Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs. London: Thames & Hudson.
p. 217.
14. "The Birth of Huitzilopochtli, Patron God of the Aztecs" (http://www.phs.poteau.k12.ok.us/willi
ame/APAH/readings/The%20Birth%20of%20Huitzilophochtli,%20Patron%20God%20of%20
the%20Aztecs.pdf) (PDF). Porteau High School. Archived (https://ghostarchive.org/archive/2
0221009/http://www.phs.poteau.k12.ok.us/williame/APAH/readings/The%20Birth%20of%20
Huitzilophochtli,%20Patron%20God%20of%20the%20Aztecs.pdf) (PDF) from the original on
2022-10-09. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
15. Read, Kay Almere (2000). Mesoamerican Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals,
and Beliefs of Mexico and Central America (https://books.google.com/books?id=Y053PeFm
S5UC). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 194. ISBN 978-0-19-514909-8.
16. Brinton, Daniel (1890). Rig Veda Americanus (https://archive.org/details/rigvedaamerican00b
ringoog). Philadelphia. pp. 18 (https://archive.org/details/rigvedaamerican00bringoog/page/n
29).
17. "Self-sacrifice" (https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/aztec-life/self-sacrifice).
www.mexicolore.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
18. "Huitzilopochtli | Aztec God of War & Sun Worship | Britannica" (https://www.britannica.com/t
opic/Huitzilopochtli). www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
19. Bernardino de Sahagún, Historia General de las Cosas de la Nueva España (op. cit.), p. 76
20. Sahagún, Ibid.
21. Carrasco, David (1982). Quetzalcoatl and the irony of empire: myths and prophecies in the
Aztec tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0226094878.
OCLC 8626972 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/8626972).
22. Duverger, Christian (2005). La flor letal: economía del sacrificio azteca. Fondo de Cultura
Económica. pp. 83–93.
23. Boone, Elizabeth. "Incarnations of the Aztec Supernatural: The Image of Huitzilopochtli in
Mexico and Europe". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. 79.
24. Smith, Michael E. (2011). The Aztecs. John Wiley & Sons.
25. Carrasco, David (1982). Quetzalcoatl and the Irony of the Empire. Boulder, Colorado: The
University of Chicago Press. p. 167. ISBN 978-0226094878.
26. Diego Durán, Book of Gods and Rites
27. Cartwright, Mark. "Huitzilopochtli" (https://www.worldhistory.org/Huitzilopochtli/). World
History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
28. Coe, Michael D. (2008). Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs. London: Thames & Hudson.
p. 221.
29. Carrasco, David (1982). Quetzalcoatl and the Irony of the Empire. Boulder, Colorado:
University of Chicago Press. p. 167. ISBN 978-0226094878.
30. Diaz de Castillo, Bernal. The True History of the Conquest of New Spain. p. 206. Diaz says
that upon hearing of Cortezes’ victory over the Cholullans he immediately ordered a number
of Indians to be sacrificed to the warrior god Huitzilopochtli.
31. Read, Kay Almere (2000). Mesoamerican Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals,
and Beliefs of Mexico and Central America (https://books.google.com/books?id=Y053PeFm
S5UC). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-19-514909-8.
32. Coe, Michael D. (2008). Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs. London: Thames & Hudson.
p. 211.
33. Coe, Michael D. (2008). Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs. London: Thames & Hudson.
p. 204.
34. Broda, Johanna (2001). Cosmovision, Ritual E Identidad de Los Pueblos Indigenas de
Mexico. Fondo de Cultura Economica USA. ISBN 9789681661786.
35. de San Anton Munon Chimalpahin, Don Domingo (1997). Codex Chimalpahin, Volume 2:
Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Texcoco, Culhuacan, and Other
Nahua Altepetl in Central Mexico. Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press.
ISBN 9780806129501.
36. Coe, Michael D. (2008). Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs. London: Thames & Hudson.
p. 187.
37. Read, Kay Almere (2000). Mesoamerican Mythologies: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals,
and Beliefs of Mexico and Central America. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 193.
38. Sahagún, Bernardino. Florentine Codex. Miguel Leon-Portilla. Book III, Chapter 1.
39. "Who Are the Deities of War and Battle?" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110918231807/htt
p://atheism.about.com/od/aztecgodsgoddesses/p/Huitzilopochtli.htm). About.com Religion &
Spirituality. Archived from the original (http://atheism.about.com/od/aztecgodsgoddesses/p/H
uitzilopochtli.htm) on 2011-09-18. Retrieved 2017-02-11.
40. Read, Key Almere (2000). Mesoamerican Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals,
and Beliefs of Mexico and Central America (https://books.google.com/books?id=Y053PeFm
S5UC). Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 195. ISBN 978-0-19-514909-8.
41. "God of the Month: Huitzilopochtli" (http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/gods/god-of-the-mont
h-huitzilopochtli). Mexicolore.
External links
The Gods and Goddesses of the Aztecs (https://web.archive.org/web/20120716212000/htt
p://www.scns.com/earthen/other/seanachaidh/godaztec.html)
Short description and an image (http://cr.middlebury.edu/public/russian/bulgakov/public_htm
l/Uitzilopochtli.html)